Incidentally, you'll generally get a higher strength brew using Baker's rather than Brewer's Yeast.
And you can get FREE yeast simply by walking into your local bakery, or bakers counter in the supermarket, and asking nicely.

He says you need a hydrometer and a thermometer - I don't necessarily agree - Ok, things aren't going to be that precise - the brewing will take longer and you won't know precisely how strong your brew is going to be (you won't anyway !)

Freecycle (or Freegle ) is a good place to find free brewing stuff if you really get into it.

1 first off there are no bad kit beers as there are multitudes of ways to improve the base kit !!

2 and don't toutch bakers yeast !! there are many grades of yeast and although bakers yeast does work it would not be as suitable as a high alchohol yield yeast available from good homebrew shops even wine uses a difrent yeast

3 forget wilkinsons for all but the very basics and cheep end kits , they are a good source for basics and do have some decent basic start out stuff , but look up your nearest good homebrewing shop !!

the biggest thing of importance is 1... good sterelisation of equipment , 2...using a keg , and 3...putting your beer into the keg for seccondry fermentation at the correct S.G. ( checked by hydrometer ) i usualy keg a little early ( not too early )when the beer is still fermenting just a little as fermentation gives the pressure in the barrel ( this is where a lot of people screw up first time with exploding bottles etc ) beer ferments vigorously at the begining then when it calms down begginers think it has finnished .
but in reality it can still have days left

another odd thing to mention is how difrent beers brew there is probably a scientific answer but i have never looked it up but
lager ferments at the top of the fermentation bin whilst ales ferment from the bottom !!

the seccondary fermentation is what gives you the pressure in your barrel as the fermenting produces c02 hence the pressure but not only does it pressurise it also keeps the beer in condition ( fit a c02 system to your barrel from the start ) as you get down the barrel there will be less pressure to dispense beer and it will lose condition if not in c02 ( i'm working out a pub style one with large c02 bottle using the regulator from my welder so i have more precise control as the bulb type is a one shot deal)
a hydrometer works by not determining the alchohol but by determining the density of the liquid ( sugar content !! ) as the sugar brews out the hydrometer drops down in a thinner viscossity of liquid
that deals with why it is also WRONG to put more sugar in than reccomended a yeast can only deal with stated ammounts of sugar and can only turn so much sugar into alchohol

but for good tasty brews you are usualy better off avoiding sugar and using things like beer enhancers ( wilkinsons sell it ) it gives a lot nicer taste ) or you can use mollases syrup etc

the thing to remember as stated there is no bad kit , just bad use of it !! practice and get used to it and you will wonder why you ever drank pub crap beers !!